Kantar is the official contractor to the UK’s official audience researcher BARB.

Andy Littledale, Managing Director of SecondSync commented: “We are delighted to announce this strategic data partnership with Kantar Media. Integrating BARB data into our product is an important step for us and will give context to our social figures that clients will find invaluable.”

Light entertainment shows will often announce an official hashtag on air that Twitter users can follow to track the show. However, the nature of social networking means there is no guarantee that a particular hashtag will be used and part of the SecondSync proposition is to aggregate that information.

After SecondSync was founded in July 2011, the first project was working on the BBC’s Frozen Planet documentary. However, Littledale realized that the audience did not engage with added content in the way they did with Twitter. “we pivoted to become an analytics company rather than a second screen platform, he told Broadband TV News.

SecondSync’s Adaptive Search system looks for microtrends in conversation: “There’s not a uniform method, so you need an intelligent platform to pick up on the trends,” said Littledale.

It has been estimated that for the first episode of Channel 4’s scripted-reality Made in Chelsea, a quarter of the audience tweeted during the show.

Other analytics shows that even in the most repeated of movies, Twitter traffic follows precisely the same pattern.

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About Julian Clover

You can talk to Julian on Twitter @julianclover, on Facebook or by email at jclover@broadbandtvnews.com. Julian has been following the media world for over 20 years with a focus on the UK and Nordic markets, HD, 3D and connected TV technologies.